brussels – Belgian prosecutors are in the advanced stages of an investigation into money transfer giant Wise over suspicions that criminals used its accounts for money laundering.Its shares fell almost 20 per cent in London on June 1 before closing down 8 per cent.The Brussels prosecutors’ office said it opened the probe in 2025 as the British company’s name kept popping up in hundreds of requests for assistance from investigating authorities in other countries.“The investigation is now at an advanced stage and nearing its conclusion,” a spokesperson for the prosecutors’ office said, confirming information first reported by the European Investigative Collaborations network.“The findings primarily concern the use of Wise accounts for criminal purposes, with indications of non-compliance with anti-money laundering legislation, particularly due to a failure to identify customers and their activities,” the spokesperson added.Detectives were probing whether criminal groups used Wise services to launder the proceeds of illicit activities, including fraud, corruption and drug trafficking.Transactions worth more than €500 million (S$744 million) were being looked at, the prosecutor’s office said.The probe focuses on Wise Europe, the Belgium-headquartered European subsidiary of the company, which said it was working with prosecutors to respond to queries about its business.Such requests for information “are a normal part of operations and are not, in themselves, indicative of non-compliance with anti-money laundering requirements or of any wrongdoing”, the company said in a statement.“No specific findings have been shared with us to date,” added the company, which has more than 19 million active customers worldwide and processes approximately 4.7 million transactions a day.Wise said it handled more than US$243 billion (S$310 billion) in cross-border transactions in the 2026 financial year.The company said on June 1 that it verifies customers before they open an account, reviews transactions, offboards customers if necessary, and reports suspicious activity to law enforcement, among other monitoring measures.Jefferies Financial Group analysts said in a note that while it was too early to comment on the investigation, Wise has been “ramping up headcount with a focus on onboarding (and) compliance” in recent years. “While difficult news, we think financial services companies are often targeted, and what is paramount is how quickly they shut down any gaps,” Jefferies analysts wrote.In 2022, Wise was fined US$360,000 by regulators in Abu Dhabi for failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering systems and controls. Wise’s US subsidiary also settled for US$4.2 million with the US authorities in 2025 over perceived anti-money laundering deficiencies. AFP, BLOOMBERG